Method and apparatus for controlling word-separation during audio playout

Abstract

A word-separation control capability is provided herein. An apparatus having a word-separation control capability includes a processor configured for controlling a length of separation between adjacent words of audio during playout of the audio. The processor is configured for analyzing a locator analysis region of buffered audio for identifying boundaries between adjacent words of the buffered audio, and, for each identified boundary between adjacent words, associating a boundary marker with the identified boundary. The locator analysis region of the buffered audio may be analyzed using syntactic and/or non-syntactic speech recognition capabilities. The boundary markers may all have the same thickness, or the thickness of the boundary markers may vary based on the length of separation between the adjacent words of the respective boundaries. The boundary markers are associated with the buffered audio for use in controlling the word-separation during the playout of the audio.

1 . An apparatus, comprising:
 a processor configured for controlling a length of separation between adjacent words of audio during playout of the audio.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the audio is stored in a buffer for playout. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured for:
 analyzing a locator analysis region of the buffered audio for identifying boundaries between adjacent words of the buffered audio; and   for each identified boundary between adjacent words of the buffered audio, associating a boundary marker with the identified boundary.   
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein the locator analysis region of the buffered audio is analyzed using a speech recognition capability. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein the speech recognition capability is a syntactic speech recognition capability, wherein the boundary marker has a thickness associated therewith, wherein the thickness of the boundary marker is determined based on syntactic analysis of the buffered audio. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein the speech recognition capability is a non-syntactic speech recognition capability, wherein the boundary marker has a thickness associated therewith, wherein the thickness of the boundary marker is determined based on non-syntactic analysis of the buffered audio. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein the buffer has associated therewith a playout pointer indicative of a current location of playout of audio from the buffer, wherein the locator analysis region of the buffer is set to be ahead of the playout pointer such that the locator analysis region is not adjacent to the playout pointer. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 7 , wherein processor is configured for moving the locator analysis region toward the playout pointer as the audio of the buffer is analyzed for identifying boundaries between adjacent words. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein the buffer has associated therewith a playout pointer indicative of a current location of playout of audio from the buffer, wherein the processor is configured for selecting the locator analysis region by:
 constructing a candidate locator analysis region of the buffer, wherein the candidate locator analysis region begins at the playout pointer and ends T units of time ahead of the playout pointer; and   setting the locator analysis region to be the sub-region of the candidate locator analysis region that is adjacent to the end of the candidate locator analysis region that is farthest from the playout pointer and has not yet been analyzed.   
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the locator analysis region has a preferred size (L) associated therewith, wherein the processor is configured for setting the locator analysis region as being a sub-region of the candidate locator analysis region that is adjacent to the end of the candidate locator analysis region that is farthest from the playout pointer and has not yet been analyzed by:
 identifying a candidate sub-region having a size W, wherein the candidate sub-region is adjacent to the end of the candidate locator analysis region that is farthest from the playout pointer; and   when L is greater than W, setting the locator analysis region to be the candidate sub-region;   when W is greater than L, setting the locator analysis region to be an L-sized sub-region of the candidate sub-region.   
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein associating a boundary marker with the located boundary comprises one of:
 inserting the boundary marker within the buffer, wherein the boundary marker is inserted within the buffer in the location of the identified word boundary; or   inserting the boundary marker within another buffer.   
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein a boundary marker has a thickness associated therewith. 
     
     
         13 . The apparatus of  claim 12 , wherein the length of the separation between adjacent words is controlled based on the thickness of the boundary marker. 
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured for playing the audio from the buffer by:
 identifying a location of a playout pointer of the buffer; and   playing out an entry indicated by the playout pointer.   
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein, when playout of audio at normal speed is selected, the processor is configured for playing the audio from the buffer by:
 when the playout pointer points to a region of the buffer in which word boundary identification processing has not been performed, silence is played irrespective of the contents of the buffer entry indicated by the playout pointer, and the playout pointer is not advanced;   when the playout pointer points to a region of the buffer in which word boundary identification processing has been performed, the contents of the buffer entry indicated by the playout pointer is played by:
 when the buffer entry indicated by the playout pointer includes an audio word, the audio word is played; 
 when the buffer entry indicated by the playout pointer includes a boundary marker, silence is played. 
   
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured for:
 when the buffer entry indicated by the playout pointer includes an audio word, the playout pointer is advanced by one buffer entry;   when the buffer entry indicated by the playout pointer includes a boundary marker, determining whether the boundary marker for which silence is played is the last boundary marker within the region;
 when the boundary marker for which silence is played is the last boundary marker within the region, the playout pointer is not advanced; 
 when the boundary marker for which silence is played is not the last boundary marker within the region, the playout pointer is advanced. 
   
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the length of separation between adjacent words of the audio is controlled in response to a control signal received from at least one user control mechanism. 
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 17 , wherein at least one user control mechanism comprises at least one of a dial, a button, and a graphical user interface (GUI) control. 
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the audio comprises non-broadcast audio or broadcast audio. 
     
     
         20 . A method, comprising:
 controlling a length of separation between adjacent words of audio during playout of the audio.